


[Meta] Dumbledore and the Deathly Hallows

by cassie5squared



Series: Potter Meta: Thoughts on the Wizarding World [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 09:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11056107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassie5squared/pseuds/cassie5squared
Summary: Debunking a fan theory that Dumbledore owned all of the Hallows and was therefore invincible during the First Wizarding War.





	[Meta] Dumbledore and the Deathly Hallows

A friend of mine (who shall go unnamed for reasons) presented a theory to me as follows: Dumbledore couldn't die the first time Voldemort was in power because he owned all the Deathly Hallows; he had the Elder Wand, gave Harry the Invisibility Cloak in his first year, and the Resurrection Stone in his will.

My response was as follows:

I’d say that’s not a plausible theory at all, for several reasons… and I shall now write you an essay expaining them. XD

Firstly, the story is that if you own all three Hallows at once, you become the Master of Death. But Dumbledore never owned all three at once.

Yes, he had the Elder Wand - that was his from 1945 onwards, when he beat Grindelwald, until he died in 1997. But he didn’t have the Resurrection Stone; that was owned by the Gaunt family until 1943, when Tom Riddle Jr. later known as Voldemort, took it from his uncle and turned it into a Horcrux. Dumbledore didn’t come to own the Stone until 1996, when he took it from its hiding place in the Gaunt family home. And the Invisibility Cloak was never actually his; he borrowed it from its owner, James Potter, in 1981, and then passed it on to Harry, who inherited it on James's death, in 1991. Dumbledore himself wasn’t ever its official owner - he just kept it in trust for the Potters until Harry was old enough to keep it himself.

So he never actually owned all three at once.

Secondly, even if he had been considered the rightful owner of all three at once, the books make it clear that being the Master of Death does not actually make you invincible and unable to be killed. It simply means that you don’t have anything to fear from Death any more - or, to put it another way, that Death is no longer scary to you. It’s the point of “greeting Death as an old friend”.

So being the owner of all three Hallows wouldn’t have saved him.

Thirdly, Dumbledore didn’t need to be invincible to survive the first war, because he is considered in canon to be the wizarding world’s biggest freaking badass up till his death. He was known to have a brilliant mind, fantastic at inventing and discovering new things - his intellect was basically the equivalent of some sort of magical Einstein or Stephen Hawking. The most famous minds of the day were collaborating with him before he even finished school. People begged him repeatedly to become the Minister for Magic because they respected his proven intelligence and potential leadership that much.

He defeated Grindelwald aged 64 (yes, we have the dates, he was THAT old) while Grindelwald was actively using the Elder Wand. Dumbledore BEAT THE ELDER WAND. He is stated to be the only person Voldemort was ever scared of. The series’ central villain was TERRIFIED of facing him during the first war because he knew full well that if Dumbledore let loose a full-blown ass-kicking, there would be no Voldy-ass left to kick afterwards.

That doesn’t sound like a guy who needs super-magical artefacts to keep himself alive. It sounds like a guy who was just damn good at being magical on his own.

I hope this clears things up for you… and apologies on how long this got!


End file.
